Vintage Fans: Tell Us a Tulane Stadium Story?

this is a discussion within the Saints Community Forum; I don't know which game it was, but there was one time when AL Hirt cussed like a sailor after some bad Saints play, which got picked up by the microphone that he would blow his trumpet into, and thus ...

I don't know which game it was, but there was one time when AL Hirt cussed like a sailor after some bad Saints play, which got picked up by the microphone that he would blow his trumpet into, and thus a string of Hirt-ful profanity got broadcast over the stadium PA...

I was reeeeally young, probably my first game, but I remember seeing the Dolphins kinda beat up on the Saints at Tulane Stadium during their heyday. Bob Griese, Larry Czonka, Mercury Morris, the No Name defense, all those dudes. I don't think it was the actual undefeated season, but just before or after that, and those guys were already living legends. And like ForeverFan with the Jim Plunkett story, we went and watched them leave, just some plain NOPD barricades between us and them, and those guys looked so badass and mean up close. Guys were limping, bruised, hobbling down the tunnel into the showers, just like the famous Mean Joe Greene commercial, LOL. But now I look back at it this way: that classic Dolphins team, had the same kind of swagger that our guys have now....

this thread is really cool. i had to ask my mother how did my dad get tickets to my first saints game which was the first in tulane stadium, remembering we were'nt set as with money to afford things like that. here cames the cool part. my old man was a ford car salesman at the time and he was involved with the areas Punt,Pass,& Kick competition which was sponsered by ford at the time and the tickets were a promo award given to him. my mom told my dad to bring me instead of her, man it just blew me away, thanks pop i know ur in heaven.

Sts Bro's post reminded me of another story. The locker rooms were under the stadium and the players would walk, as he said, between the NOPD barricades. You could reach out and slap hands or get a chin strap which was awesome.

Anyway towards the end of his career, Danny Abramowich (sp??) asked to be traded to SF so he could play with a winner... Well as fate would have it they had a lousy year and we had a "great year" by our standards back then... maybe 6 wins.... So anyway I made my way down to the barricades where SF passed and yelled.. "Hey Danny... how's life with the winners??" He stopped and I thought he was going to be pissed, and just smiled and waived the peace sign.....

this thread is really cool. i had to ask my mother how did my dad get tickets to my first saints game which was the first in tulane stadium, remembering we were'nt set as with money to afford things like that. here cames the cool part. my old man was a ford car salesman at the time and he was involved with the areas Punt,Pass,& Kick competition which was sponsered by ford at the time and the tickets were a promo award given to him. my mom told my dad to bring me instead of her, man it just blew me away, thanks pop i know ur in heaven.

Your Dad & Buddy D up there rooting for our Saints, Tommy.
Nice story. Thanks. So what stuck out in your head about the Stadium and the game experience, when you were a kid?

OK...here's my Tulane Stadium story. I know you all have been anxiously waiting!

I was in high school and my best friend's girlfriend's father (she was my girlfriend about 5 years previously for about a week) took my friend and I to a game. I guess his wife and daughter didn't want to come that week.

Anyway, I remember the game was against the Cardinals when they were the St. Louis Cardinals, and if my memory serves me correct, Jim Hart was the QB at the time. I remember one thing in particular about this game because it was one of the few times that I've seen any team try what I believe is called a free-kick. You are allowed to try a FG unopposed, another words, the other team cannot rush, if you try it on first down just after your team has received a punt and called for a fair catch...which was the situation that day. They elected to do this because there was only a couple of seconds left on the clock before halftime. I don't remember whether they made it or not...but that's not the story.

The story is regarding the guy that took us to the game. Just before half, he decided to go to the concession stands and get us all a soft drink and peanuts or whatever. While I was watching the game, my buddy starts poking me in the ribs and laughing. I turned to him and said, "What?"
He is pointing down the aisle...we were sitting in the first 3 seats next to the aisle down towards the concession stands. When I looked, I see the guy that took us to the game preceeding down the aisle and he is about 10 rows or so down from us. Stuck to the back of his pants was a wad of gum, and trailing him from his pants all the way back to his seat was a string of gum. It was hilarious. I guess he wanted to make sure that he could find his way back to his seat.

Yanno y'all, the Dome *does* have the equivalent of metal bleachers as far as sound! If you sit in the VERY LAST SEATS AT THE TOP, you can bang on the metal wall behind you like a mofo. Highly recommended fun!!! : D

Yanno y'all, the Dome *does* have the equivalent of metal bleachers as far as sound! If you sit in the VERY LAST SEATS AT THE TOP, you can bang on the metal wall behind you like a mofo. Highly recommended fun!!! : D

HAHAHAHAHA... So YOU are that guy! I see you all the time. You've been there since the 80's.

If you are sitting on the top row, and you are NOT banging the wall, you are not doing your job. Please trade seats with a fan who will do it.

I remember the day I was at Chalmette High School for a game on Fri. night and they announced over the speakers that New Orleans had been awarded a franchise. Everyone went insane, jumping up and down hugging each other and screaming and crying. It was wild.

The team was going to start play in 1967 and I just had to be involved in some way. There was this company called Andrew D. Frain Security and they were hiring ticket takers and security for the games at Tulane Stadium. While I'm not one of those guys that looks older than he is, I went in and applied for the job even though I was under age, and got the job.

I turned 14 in August of the Saints inaugural season and was in the stands looking for people throwing glass beer bottles down onto the walkway or sitting in the wrong areas and helping people to their seats. All of a sudden, a huge roar came up from the crowd and people started standing up and as I turned to the field, I saw John Gilliam (SP) take the opening kick all the way back for a touchdown!!

It was an incredible and exciting moment in a young man's eyes and cemented my love for the Saints through all the hard years to come.

One thing I will also relate is that we used to take tickets at the gates to the games too, and there were some really dark back alley gates there. we used to sell ticket stubs to people who didn't have tickets to make extra money as they didn't pay us all that well back in those days. I guess cause we were kids. I was also able to be at the game where Dempsey kicked the record field goal. Lots of great memories and moments but nothing compared to losing my job to watch the Saints beat Indy in Super Bowl 44.

I'm not sure if I missed something in one of the previous posts or whether you are saying that this happened to you...but whichever doesn't really matter because it reminds me of a similar story.

This is not a TS story, but what the hey...

I can't remember exactly which year it was, but I'm thinking it was September of 1979. I was living in Hattiesburg, MS, my wife had a math degree and was working as a secretary for the math dept. (for all of you that are wondering, that's what kind of job a math degree got you back then)

I had been attending USM as a student myself for that last year and a half after getting out of the Navy in '77. I had been drawing GI Bill and unemployment, but they both eventually ran-out and I had to go out and get a job.

I was working for a company called Martin-Decker, and they sold and serviced oil rig instrumentation. I had just returned home the Friday night before the opening game of the season from a trip down to the mouth of the Mississippi River, I think it was Belle Chase, where we were installing some equipment on a jack-up rig. One thing I remember in particular about that was that my boss waited until they jacked the rig 400 feet into the air before he decided to run the cable from one end of the drill floor to the other. The cables ran under the floor and I had to get out on a cable run that was under the floor and catch the cables as he dropped them through holes and hand them back up to him on the other end. I was 400 feet above the river with nothing in between me and the river but those cables I was laying on. It literally freaked me out for a good long while. When driving back across the GNO I was barely moving and could not look to the side at the river.

The reason I had to go down to that rig with my boss was so that two of the more Sr. guys could stay behind and finish building some portable drilling stations for Shell.

Well, I finally made it back to Hattiesburg and got a call on Sunday afternoon just at the opening kick-off of the first regular season game...and I can't remember whether it was in Tulane Stadium or where. All I know is that my boss is calling me right then and telling me that he needs me to come to the office and help him finish those portable stations that the other guys didn't finish. It was right then that I no longer worked for Martin-Decker.

Edit--It just came to me...that game couldn't have been in Tulane Stadium...because I remember that when that rig was jacked up 400 ft. I could actually see the Superdome.